Dunbarton House, 70 Dunbarton Street, Loughans, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, BT63 6HJ

Dunbarton House is an early Victorian two-storey-with-attic, three-bay house built around 1845, possibly to the designs of architect Thomas Jackson. It was built by Hugh Dunbar (1789–1847), proprietor of the local spinning mill, on a largely vacant plot on the outskirts of Gilford, overlooking the former Dunbar McMaster mill. It is a good, largely intact example of a large linen merchant's house, retaining much of its original historic fabric, fine quality detailing, wooded landscaped setting, and a range of associated outbuildings and structures.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is of square plan with a prostyle tetrastyle Ionic portico, bowed bay windows, a rear return, and associated outbuildings including a conservatory. It sits at the end of a long sweeping driveway off Dunbarton Street, to the north-west of Gilford village centre.

The hipped natural slate roof has leaded hips and is surmounted by a balustraded widow's walk surrounding chimney stacks fitted with multiple tall octagonal yellow clay pots. Paired shaped eaves brackets frame soffit paterae, and cast-iron rainwater goods are used throughout. The walls are stucco-rendered with rusticated channelling to the ground floor, a plat band to the first-floor cill course, and a frieze course over paired corner pilasters. Windows are generally 6/6 timber sliding sashes with horns, set within moulded stucco surrounds with dentilled entablatures and painted masonry cills.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is symmetrically arranged. At its centre is a prostyle tetrastyle Ionic portico with a dentilled entablature, surmounted by a balcony with a cast-iron balustrade. The originally open portico has been infilled with timber-panelled and glazed screens to form an enclosed porch. The entrance door is timber-panelled with bolection mouldings, four glazed upper panes, and a rectangular bipartite overlight. Directly above the portico is a tripartite window: a central 6/6 sliding sash flanked by 2/2 sliding sashes with horizontal glazing bars, all set within a panelled timber frame rising to decorative console brackets. Single windows are positioned at ground and first floor level on each side of the central bay.

The north-west elevation is asymmetrically arranged. To the ground floor right is a tripartite bowed bay window with curved sashes (2/2, 6/6, 2/2), replacement console brackets, panelled outer pilasters rising to a dentilled entablature, and a cast-iron balustrade above. To the left of the bowed bay, a former window opening has been altered to accommodate a door with four glazed upper panels over two solid panels, with a single ground-floor window further to the left. The first floor has four uniformly arranged windows. A 3/3 sliding sash gabled dormer window to the right has a leaded roof and slated cheeks; a roof light sits to the left. The left side of this elevation is abutted by a double-height rendered wall enclosing the rear yard.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a gabled rear return left of centre, a two-storey flat-roofed abutment to the left, and a single-storey lean-to abutment to the right. To the right of the return at ground floor level is a bipartite 6/6 window, with a single window at first floor. There is a casement dormer window right of centre, a quadripartite roof light to the left, and a diminutive bipartite roof light to the right. The rear return is subservient in scale, with lower eaves and ridge levels and decorative bargeboards. Its gable end is blank. The right cheek of the return has a ground-floor window to the centre, a door and window to the far right, and windows to the centre and right at first floor. The left cheek has a 4/4 window to the far left, a window left of centre, and a further window to the right, with matching windows directly above at first floor; there is no ornamentation to this return. The single-storey abutment is L-shaped with a wraparound lean-to roof and a curved corner, and contains a variety of windows and doors. The two-storey abutment has a four-panelled door to the right at ground floor, with a 1/1 timber sliding sash window to the far right and a 1/1 timber sliding sash window directly above at first floor; there are single windows at ground and first floor to the left cheek. A pump is located to the rear.

The south-east elevation is also asymmetrically arranged. To the ground floor left is a tripartite bowed bay window with curved sashes (2/2, 6/6, 2/2), original console brackets, panelled outer pilasters rising to a dentilled entablature, and a cast-iron balustrade above. Two windows sit to the right of the bowed bay. The first floor has four uniformly arranged openings; French doors are positioned left of centre at first floor, with the remaining three openings being windows. A 3/3 sliding sash gabled dormer window to the left has a leaded roof and slated cheek. The right side of this elevation is abutted by a double-height rendered wall enclosing the rear yard.

SETTING AND OUTBUILDINGS

The house sits within well-maintained, mature landscaped grounds to the south and east, with the original wooded setting surviving. The modern entrance features modern squared masonry retaining walls to the south-east running parallel to the main road, with modern pillars supporting original relocated gates and pedestrian gates. A sweeping, inclining driveway leads to a gravel forecourt addressing the principal elevation.

The rear yard is accessed through an elliptical arch and is enclosed by brick and rendered walls, with two-storey outbuildings to the north-east. These outbuildings have a pitched natural slate roof, rough-cut rubble masonry walling laid to coursed with brick surrounds to openings, brick chimneys, cast-iron rainwater goods, largely replacement windows, and have been partially modified to provide modern accommodation. A central segmental-arched coach entrance leads into a rear cobbled courtyard. To the north-west of this courtyard is a two-storey gabled natural slate red brick stable block, largely altered and including a Second World War squash court. To the south-east is a single-storey mono-pitched natural slate red brick stable block with replacement doors, fixed multi-paned lights, and a chimney left of centre, with a simple cast-iron water pump adjacent. The rear yard is enclosed to the north-east by a rubble masonry wall with squared brick piers, granite caps, and replacement timber-sheeted gates.

A terraced garden and conservatory lie to the south-east. A small lean-to red brick shed with fixed multi-paned lights stands to the right of the conservatory. A Second World War air-raid shelter is located to the south.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Thomas Jackson has been attributed as the architect on the basis of the house's stylistic resemblance to Huntly House, Milltown House, and Belmont, all of which date from the 1830s and 1840s. Hugh Dunbar was descended from a linen family; his grandfather had leased a property at Huntley from the Whytes of Loughbrickland, where Hugh manufactured thread and employed hand-loom weavers to produce linen cloth. By 1834, competition from mill-spun yarns produced by the new wet-spinning process compelled Dunbar to establish his own spinning mill or face ruin. He chose Gilford as the centre of his new enterprise, and the spinning mill opened in 1839. He later formed a partnership with John Walsh McMaster of Armagh. The settlement of mill and surrounding housing built by Hugh Dunbar became known as "Dunbarton" and is captioned as such on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–2. This industrial village was one of a number established in Ireland during the early Victorian period, comparable in character to Sion Mills and Bessbrook.

Dunbarton House first appears, captioned, on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, shown within extensive grounds with outbuildings to the rear. By the third edition of 1901–2, the outbuildings had been extended to form a courtyard to the rear of the house, and a conservatory had been added to the south-east.

Hugh Dunbar died in 1847, shortly after completing his new mansion. In 1858, John Walsh McMaster bought out Dunbar's surviving relatives and acquired both the mill and Dunbarton House, which became his residence from at least 1860. Griffith's Valuation records McMaster as the first listed occupant, with the house valued at £67 and dimensions given for a two-and-a-half-storey house with a porch flanked by single-storey bays; eight outbuildings and two gatehouses are also noted. John Walsh McMaster died in 1872, and the house then passed to his eldest son, Hugh Dunbar McMaster, who was resident in the twenty-two-room mansion at the time of the 1901 census, when he was fifty-seven years old. He lived with his Indian-born wife and three daughters aged between seven and fifteen. The couple employed a Parisian governess and a small staff comprising a cook and two housemaids. Hugh Dunbar McMaster, himself an Episcopalian, employed servants from each of the major denominations: Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic. In 1901, Dunbar, McMaster & Co was absorbed with the Barbours' linen business into the Linen Thread Company Limited, with production continuing at Gilford until the 1980s.

Following Hugh Dunbar McMaster's death in 1907, the house lay vacant for a time. In 1915 it was converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers, run by the Ulster Volunteer Force and staffed by the UVF's Nursing Corps. By May 1915 the house was providing beds for 214 patients, and in the autumn of 1916 an annex of thirty beds was opened in nearby Bannvale House. An illuminated address of thanks, signed by Winston Churchill, was sent to Dunbarton House by the War Office.

The last resident noted in the Annual Revisions was John Archibald Dickie in 1921. The house subsequently became the property of John D. Barbour, a managing director of the Linen Thread Company, and then of the Moodie family, Robert K. Moodie succeeding Barbour as managing director of the mill. In the First General Revaluation of 1933–34 the house was revalued at £80 and noted as rent-free and leased from Dunbar McMaster. At that time the house comprised three reception rooms, a cloakroom, kitchen, two pantries, a scullery, four bedrooms, two bathrooms with hot and cold water, three servants' bedrooms, and a servants' bathroom also with hot and cold water. The house made use of the Dunbar McMaster mill's electricity and water supply.

During the Second World War the house was used again as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. An air-raid shelter was constructed in the grounds by 297 Company of the Royal Engineers, who were stationed in the Gilford Castle demesne. The commanding officer of that company, who was on friendly terms with Mr Moodie, had his soldiers build the air-raid shelter for the use of patients and staff. They also cleared out a former mill reservoir in the grounds and converted it into a concrete swimming pool, which was at the time one of only two in Northern Ireland suitable for hosting international events. The pool was widely used during and for some time after the war but has since gone.

The house was listed in 1977, at which time it was the home of a veterinary surgeon, W. Wallace. The portico, which would originally have been open, had already by that point been infilled with glazed screens, which have been retained to the present day. In 1994, renovation work was carried out including repairs to the chimney stacks, a new balustrade, and some window renovation. The house remains in private ownership and is in use as a dwelling.